Transmeta Unveils New Processor, Efficeon

The new offering includes both the physical processor and "code-morphing" software that helps provide for longer battery life.

"Crusoe was a good chip," said John Heinlein, director of system marketing for Transmeta, Santa Clara, Calif. "It delivered good battery life, (but it's) performance was not universally praised."

Efficeon was built as an entirely new processor -- with both hardware and software - largely to improve performance. While Crusoe could run four instructions per clock cycle, Heinlein said, Efficeon can run eight instructions per clock cycle.

And the company said the Efficeon will perform at 1.1 GHz, compared with the 900 MHz offered by Intel's Mobile Pentium M in the Centrino platform when both use 7 watts of power.

Transmeta executives also said the new Efficeon chip uses a fraction of the power on "standby" as a similar Centrino-based processor from Intel.

According to Transmeta's roadmap, the company will ship a 2 GHz version of Efficeon next year, running at 25 Watts and built on a 90 nm process technology under a new partnership with Fujitsu. The roadmap calls for a transition to an even smaller, 65 nm process for Efficeon in 2005, when the company said it will begin shipping a third-generation Efficeon at higher performance.

Pricing was not immediately available, nor was a list of original equipment manufacturers who would adopt the new technology. Transmeta executives have said they also intend to seek out the custom systems channel for their processors over the next several months.